1. The hair strand on the tire indicates tire wear off
I didn't actually find out about it at first as I know that it is not going to affect driving experience. Until when a customer told me that a technician told her about this hair strand tells you when to change your tyre.
Talks about experience, I may not have as much as those who have worked in this industry for even more than 20 years, but I know this is certainly wrong.
Why tire manufacturer create this "extra" features when all brands manufacturer have an international standard to tell users in the tread area and sidewall that the depth of the tread has reached 1.6mm.
But I fail to answer the purpose of this hair strand. So I check it out.
**According to the Hong Kong Traffic Ordinance, the legal requirement for the tire depth is 1mm. That implies, even if your tire reach this 1.6mm level, you can still use it (legally).... but do you really think you can even reach this 1.6mm tread depth?
https://tyrehood.blogspot.com/2016/10/check.html
This hair strand is called "vent spews". In the process of manufacturing tires, pressure is added (same as the process of retreading tyre), but too much pressure will cause air mixing in the rubber. Hence, extra air pressure is released through this "vent spews"
2. Why new tires are not packaged
Packaging happened more than a decade ago. But most brands (or rather sole agent of the brands) do not require packaging due to the land pollution. Imagine how much trash is produced when more than 100 thousands tires packaging are thrown.
Afterall, packaging is not vacuum tight. It will not delay tire age. Just not easily dirty.
In addition, it is not easy to check if a tire is really a brand new tire (A brand new tire definition: The tire has not mounted into the vehicle. Even if it is mounted on the vehicle, a traveling of 1cm will lose the "brand new" identity). When a brand new tire is mounted onto the car, some of the coloring (like those yellow and red dot) do not come off right away.
3. Why there is not EU labeling for this tire? What is the value of the EU label for this tire?
EU label for the tire consists of sound, petrol efficiency, and wet performance of the tire. The EU label is meant for EU. That is understatement. It's not for Hong Kong, therefore not all tyres have such EU label with them. You can use the label as a reference, but this reference is not accurate to apply in Hong Kong because of weather, road conditions etc. (even both places are using asphalt as a material, the mixture, layer and mirco of the materials might differ)
Additionally, there is no standard in Hong Kong to use a reference for tire, it is not compulsory to have a EU label on the tire. When the tire is not export to EU, it does not have that EU label as well. Even if it does, not all tyres will have it stick on them.
So, it is not possible to answer the EU label value for each of the tire.
(A customer does not seem to believe this when he asked why, the Firestone tire that I sold to him, does not have the EU label)
btw, the EU label will change its regulation on 1 May 2021 onwards. The label design may change the next time when you purchase them.
4. UTQG (Uniform Tire Quality Grading)
UTQG is the U.S standard of the tire testing. It looks at Wear, traction, and Temperature.
e.g.
Sailun Elite Wear ->360, Traction -> A, Temperature -> A
Goodyear F1A5 Wear->300, Traction -> AA, Temperature -> A
The myth of manufacture date
It is undoubted that every customers want the latest manufacturing date of the tyre. Who doesn't? Even if you purchase food in the supermarket, you probably choose the one with longer expiry date.
Some may have heard "The tire has [expired], look at the manufacturing date. It's time to change"
If you saw the previous post, Michelin, Dunlop, Pirelli (and more) manufacturer mentioned that it is difficult to estimate if the tire has expired.
Afterall, the supplier inventory have "shelter" for the tires to keep them from exposing to rain.
A) The UK government decided to ban 10 year-old tire
Some other opinions mentioned about keeping it 3 years, 6 years. Some HK retailers also mentioned about 3 years.
So, do we really need the latest manufacturing date?
Followor Like Tyrehood facebook page to let me know that you are interested in tire issues. Then I will tell more about it in the next post.
